For those of you who are regular readers of the Blonde news items, you will already be aware that I have been following this story with a keen eye. If you are currently in the dark as to what all this is in reference to, then please feel free to catch up on poker's latest scandal by reading the following two articles:
Scandal At Pokerroom.com - click here
"Pokerroom.con": The Scandal Continues... - click here
At the risk of sounding like obsessive crusaders, we here at blondepoker.com have always been intent on supporting players when we feel they have been treated unfairly by the corporate world of online poker, and this has been the case for the members of Pokerroom.com and, in particular, the winners of their recent Christmas tournament.
As the aforementioned articles retell, the $19k guarantee that never was has caused one hell of a scandal with poker forums and sites around cyber space who were more than happy to not only highlight the faux-pas, but also the poor manner in which the whole issue was handled.
What caused much of the crisis was the deafening silence and lack of response from Pokerroom executives, but now, after amost three weeks, representatives of the firm have finally responded to the allegations that have been flying around.
Oskar Hornell, founder of Pokerroom.com, wrote the following:
"Ladies and gentlemen, please put down your pitchforks and torches for a moment and hear me out.
Looking back at the response we have had since running the Christmas Tournament, we felt it was necessary to provide our players with a resolution and an explanation to the situation we have encountered.
On December 16th, PokerRoom.com held a tournament advertising a flat screen HDTV valued at $2,000 and other prizes including PokerRoom.com merchandise. All promotional information given out to players stated the above information; players were able to view this in the promo section, through e-mails, and on the registration page.
Surely we would have mentioned it in our marketing if we had _planned_ for the tourney to have a $19,000 added cash bonus? If we deliberately wanted to "lure" people in with that cash, as some posters have suggested, shouldn't we at least have mentioned that sum in our ads?
The fact is that on the day of the tournament, a software glitch caused the information in our game client to change to read that this tournament was a $19,000 guaranteed tournament, though all other promotional and tournament info pages still stated that the tournament's first prize was a flat screen HDTV valued at $2,000.
After the tournament, our staff discovered the error and attempted to correct it by removing the sum that wasn't supposed to be there. At the time it must have seemed like the natural thing to do, just like they would have _added_ the same sum if it instead had been missing from the prize pool.
We do realize that there are downsides to this solution, and have since reconsidered. **We have paid these players in full as of today January 3 and have taken the necessary steps to prevent a situation like this from happening in the future.** We would like to sincerely apologize to our affected players for the inconvenience this has caused them.
Personally speaking, however, I must say that I'm a little disappointed to see so many being eager to jump on the bandwagon of hate, without first investigating the facts or background of the situation. It seems that some people just want to read the things that support their already formed picture of "the big, bad corporation ripping off the little guy". But things aren't always that black and white in reality.
Over the almost 8 years that we have run PokerRoom.com we have made mistakes, a lot of mistakes even. But I can honestly say that we have never deliberately ripped off any of our customers."
Sincerely,
Oskar Hornell
Founder of PokerRoom.com"
First off, let me just say that I urge you to draw your own opinions on this statement, but, for me, it is most unsatisfactory and cleary little more than an insincere apology littered with insults and patronisation. For the founder of a company to begin his statement by telling his customers, many of whom have remained loyal over many years, to "put down your pitchforks and torches" defies belief.
Also, although comments such as "a software glitch caused the information in our game client to change to read that this tournament was a $19,000 guaranteed tournament" and "All promotional information given out to players stated the above information (ie. 19k guarantee)" are all good and well, but Oskar Hornell seems to be missing the whole point.
YOU (Pokerroom) made the mistake, players joined this comp because of YOUR mistake so YOU have a moral (at the very least) olbigation to refund their winnings that YOU removed from their accounts without so much as a phone call. If they can't see that, then I truly despair.
That being said, it is important to remain open minded, and so perhaps naivity is the explanation for this mishap. Also, if I am reading correctly, all monies have been refunded, so that is something.
However, the important thing here is that the 'little guy' does have a voice if he shouts loud enough. If we can group together to object to such injustices in what is essentially an unregulated industry, then we always have a chance of making progress.
[Ed Note: If you wish to comment on this issue, then please feel free to visit the forum thread by clicking the link below]
